MiG Alley

Name and extent

"MiG Alley" was the name UN pilots gave during the Korean War to the airspace of northwestern the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, where the Yalu River empties into the Yellow Sea. On the East Asian frontier the Yalu forms the border between Korea and China, so the fighting in this airspace was fighting along a national frontier. The nickname came from the Soviet-built MiG-15 that made the area its main arena. Richard K. Kolb, writing in VFW Magazine, describes its extent as the triangular area running from Antung (Dandong) along the Yalu to Suiho and south to Sinanju.

Why it became a battleground

MiG-15 units flew from bases in Manchuria, inside Chinese territory. UN rules of engagement forbade attacks across the Chinese border, so once an engagement turned against them the MiGs could cross the Yalu and fall back on a sanctuary. The Russian-language Wikipedia records constraints in the opposite direction as well: Soviet MiG-15s carried Chinese or North Korean markings, and their pilots were barred from operating over the Yellow Sea and from pursuing enemy aircraft south of the Pyongyang-Wonsan line. Radio traffic was to be conducted in Korean, and pilots were issued phrase books of common Korean words written in Cyrillic; in the heat of combat they soon reverted to Russian. Soviet pilots were also forbidden to fly over non-communist-controlled territory or within 30 to 50 miles of the Allied front lines.

The site of jet-versus-jet war

When MiG-15s of the Soviet 64th Fighter Aviation Corps entered combat on 1 November 1950, the area became the site of the first large-scale jet-versus-jet air battles in history. UN forces at first held the advantage with propeller fighters and early jets, but the deployment of F-86 Sabres of the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing that December produced a real opponent. What followed was a contest between Sabres and MiG-15s, the emergence of aces on several sides, and a lasting dispute over the kill claims.

The B-29s and "Black Thursday"

The MiG-15's main mission was to intercept strategic bombers. USAF pilots nicknamed 12 April 1951 "Black Thursday": 30 MiG-15s attacked 48 B-29s, three bombers were shot down and seven more damaged, with no casualties on the communist side, and bomber sorties over Korea were then halted for roughly three months. The Russian-language Wikipedia also records that the Americans lost five aircraft that day in under ten minutes, and that Ivan Kozhedub reported North Korean claims of taking the crews of three B-29s prisoner.

The kill ratio and after

At the armistice there were 297 Sabres in Korea facing an estimated 950 Sino-Korean MiGs. US pilots claimed to have destroyed 792 MiGs for the loss of 78 Sabres, but later research lowers this sharply. A 2008 RAND report estimated the F-86's actual exchange ratio at 1.8 to 1 overall and probably 1.3 to 1 against MiGs flown by Soviet pilots. The Soviet presence was officially denied for a long time after the war.